Designer.

Researcher.

Away from my work, you’ll find me with my family, enjoying the outdoors, or with a needle and thread working on embroidery.

I have practiced design for over twenty-six years working across academia, industry, and community. I especially enjoy when each of these areas overlap. Some of my achievements include:

Achieved Tenure as an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois

Built a scalable research practice, created and implemented inclusive pedagogy, and cultivated and refined skills required for the detail-oriented work required to achieve changes within institutional systems.

Authored a Book, Chapters, Journal Articles, and Conference Proceedings

Co-Authored the book, Racism Untaught: Revealing and Unlearning Racialized Design, with Terresa Moses, published by The MIT Press in October 2023.

Faculty Co-Lead for Community-Engaged Research Justice

Through participatory workshops we reimagined the dynamics between community and the university.

View Curriculum vitae

I am working toward a PhD from a distance at the University of Edinburgh. The title of my thesis is Developing a Situated Sense of Ethics in Design: An Empirical Investigation to contextualize ethics in design.

Dissertation Committee:

Dr. Craig Martin
Interdisciplinary Design Studies Deputy Director
School of Design

Dr. Rachel Harkness
Program Director
MA Design for Change

Dr. Giovanni Marmont
Lecturer in Social Design

The leading question for this research study is: How does a situated sense of design affect the role and function of ethics in a design process, enacted in a collaborative space?